Carmen Villain- Memoria / Carrier - Thresholds
This week features a double header, and what an incredible one it is: Carmen Villain returns with a new LP Memoria on her go-to imprint Smalltown Supersound, while Carrier continues his self-titled series with a new three-tracker, Thresholds. These are two exceptional, immersive releases by masters of their craft.
Carmen Villain- Memoria - Smalltown Supersound
Oslo-based label Smalltown Supersound and Carmen Hillestad first collaborated in 2013—a partnership that has proven remarkably fruitful. Back then, Hillestad, operating as Carmen Villain, focused heavily on guitar-driven indie pop and rock. Since then, across five albums and numerous singles, her sound has evolved toward experimental electronic music infused with dub, ambient, and leftfield electronica. Unsurprisingly, her path led to collaborations with artists like Actress, Huerco S., and Norwegian saxophonist Bendik Giske, alongside live performances at festivals such as Berlin Atonal, Paral-lel, MUTEK, Draaimolen, and Meakusma just this weekend.
On Memoria, her unique blend of woodwind instruments, fourth-world arcana, and dub-influenced electronics deepens. This time, the work is strongly shaped by Pauline Oliveros’ concept of Deep Listening and Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s film Memoria—which directly inspired the album's title. Both Oliveros’ and Weerasethakul’s practices share striking parallels: the distinction between passive hearing and active, conscious listening; the interplay between internal and external acoustic realms; and sound framed as a vessel for memory and a somatic archive of the world. Villain transposes these ideas across Memoria’s seven tracks through a compositional approach that treats creation as a form of re-interpretation, breathing new life into archival material.
The slow, undulating waves of Johanna Orellana’s flute, enveloped by metallic synthesizers, welcome listeners on Labour of Imagination. A seamless transition leads into Entre Nosotros, where minimal, sluggish electronics meet classical elements in a nod to the sonic legacies of Chain Reaction and Ricardo Villalobos. For those who have seen the film, the album’s title track perfectly captures its atmosphere: dark, breathtaking, and almost oppressive low-end steps intertwine with eerie synth-buzzing and percussion-like flickering. Layers of woodwind samples accelerate toward a climax on Hope Synapses, rendering the piece true to its name. Blue bridges the gap between Perlon-esque minimalism and early Berlin dub approaches by artists like Monolake and T++/Dynamo. Meanwhile, a crisp, stumbling rhythm of delayed bass, claps, and eerie strings on Holding a Shape creates an immersive, dark trip. Finally, Omriss closes the release with a long, accelerating climax of synthetic crackles and organic woodwind interplay, leaving the listener suspended between harmony and disturbance.
Carrier - Thresholds - Carrier
Barely someone made waves like Guy Brewer in the world of experimental club music since he started his new moniker Carrier three years ago. Since 2011 Brewer is experimenting in different fields of electronic (dance) music under different aliases, but according to an interview with Inverted Audio Carrier seems to be his last alias:
“I’ve dipped my toes into so many areas over the years, and this project is about me trying to unify my experiences and hopefully do something that feels unique and personal.”
So far many say that’s exactly what Carriers music is right now, “unique” or even “state of the art”. You’ll definitely find a common ground between Carrier releases and his earlier work under Relay, Pacific Blue, or Shifted: Brewer has always been an enthusiast of the dark and minimalistic side of electronic music. Many different styles he “dipped his toes in” over the years contribute their part to the conglomeration that defines his current sound; whether it’s droning ambient, harsh synthesizer and bass slaps, as well as ice-cold machine aesthetics. Barely anyone takes the art of teasing to the next level in their productions like he does, because there’s no release. You wait for the drop? You lose.
A slow pattern of church bell similar tolling throughout Cure is the atmospheric foundation of this deep piece. The listener is constantly torn between the 75bpm gong-ish meditation and the flickering rhythmic elements in double time, both made with loads of reverb creating an image of a cult’s spiritual ceremony in a futuristic world in H.R. Giger style. Scout, with stone cold drums, and heavily delayed hits leave you in a seemingly endless dark room only surrounded by apparently random drum and percussion work, until lush pads don’t really flood the room but make their way through all the obscurity. Black Channels on the flip builds up from an eerie pattern and usual drum-wizardry to a murky climax, full of bleak metallic crackles, coin-like hits and constantly moving soundscapes.
In the event that Brewer follows through on his announcement and Carrier remains his final project, we can only hope it takes years before he finishes it.
